


drown with me

by VolunteerFieryDantooinian



Category: All the Wrong Questions
Genre: 15 foot waves, Angst with a Happy Ending, Crying, Drowning, Fluff, Gen, Kellar can swim really well, Making Lemony Suffer, Mouth-to-Mouth, Platonic Crying, Platonic Hugging, Punching, Punching your best friend, SNICKET GETS DECKED, Slight lemony/Kellar if you have your ship goggles on, Tears, platonic fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-21
Updated: 2016-08-21
Packaged: 2018-08-10 05:35:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7832371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VolunteerFieryDantooinian/pseuds/VolunteerFieryDantooinian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little bit of a drabble on Lemony, pain, and the things you do for love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	drown with me

**Author's Note:**

> just FYI "Setnick" is not a typo, it's the nickname @captainoflifeandlemons has Kellar use for Lemony, because it's an anagram of Snicket and I rlly like it

Kellar was in the middle of a rather enthralling science fiction novel when Moxie Mallahan burst into the room, hair flying in her eyes as she jumped into the chair across from him.

"You have got to come see this." She gasped, gray eyes filled with something like dread, but also akin to awe. She took his hand and he dropped his book onto the table as she pulled him to his feet. Moxie led him outside, running, and they stopped at where you could usually look out and see the Clusterous Forest below you, if you felt like looking at such a dreadful, eerie sight. But today, it was even more so.

Water was flooding into the valley, crashing in humongous waves, and in a few places, where it wasn't submerged completely yet, stalks of seaweed seized violently, jumping and rattling with the force of the water. It wasn't too far below them, but it was far enough for jumping to be very, very dangerous.

"There was discussion of the valley being flooded again, but I never suspected.." Kellar's voice trembled, especially as he realized what could have happened. "Do you know if everyone got out?" He inquired softly.

"No. Feint and Kit are likely to the city by now, but they likely escaped early on, as Ellington has the skeleton key. They probably got out in time; rumors have said they've been spotted in town once or twice. Snicket.. There's no news." She finished softly, looked at the ground with a dangerous look in her eyes.

"Do you think we should check? Just.. To make sure." He said softly, voice quivering. "Head down there and see if there's any evidence he's gone."

"No. Are you kidding? Kellar, we would just get ourselves killed. And after what happened.." She trailed off, glaring at the ground, her voice thick with anger and remorse. A surge of something hot and dangerous surged through Kellar's chest, and he gave her a look.

"Well, I'm going. You don't have to come if you don't want to. But I'm going." Kellar said quietly, and started off down the path that wound down the cliff and to a small, rocky stretch of beach.

"Haines, wait!" He heard Moxie's footsteps behind him, and she slid on the sandy dirt a little bit. She brushed a strand of curly hair out of her eyes. "I'm coming with you. Just to make sure you don't do anything too stupid." Moxie chuckled, a little nervously. Kellar gave her a soft smile, and they continued on down the path, continually pushing the sea grass out of their way.

The sky was dark, a troubled, violent shade of charcoal, but they could still see fine, and when they finally arrived at the beach, Kellar found himself speechless.

The waves were roaring 10 feet high, monsters ready to pounce on anyone unlucky enough to be caught in their crushing wake. Kellar didn't want to think about what it would be like for Setnick to be out there, if he was. Speaking of which, where would he even be? He scanned the horizon, but all he was getting was white plumes of spray. The water would soon rise over the small stretch of beach, and they'd still have a path to get to the lighthouse, but the water would rise almost to where it had been before.

Suddenly, Kellar caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Not too many yards away from where he was right now, he could clearly spot a humanoid shape, clinging to a stalk of seaweed, and if he squinted, he could almost see Lemony's jacket. Luckily, he was in a spot where the waves were hitting pretty slowly, maybe once every couple minutes in a sort of inlet, and if he timed it right, he could get in and get out fast.

Then a rushing brute of a wave slammed hard into the figure, and he was gone.

Kellar screamed in spite of himself, eyes filled with panic, and he disregarded his safety completely as he pulled off his raincoat and dove through a gap in the waves. The freezing water pulled at him, seaweed sticking and brushing against his legs and arms. Ugh. The water was painted shades of black and gray and green, the seaweed ugly and olive compared to the almost-beauty of the water. Brackish water stung his eyes.

He surfaced and looked around, making sure he wasn't going to get a wave on the head any time soon. It looked like he had timed it perfectly, he thought, and paddled to where he had last seen the figure. He took in a huge breath and let himself go under.

The water blurred his vision and stung his eyes, but it was surprisingly clear. He looked around frantically, but couldn't see anything. Deeper. Still nothing, and Kellar's ears were almost popping. He looked around, trying to stay focused, and out of the corner of his eye, he caught a flash of a familiar jacket.

Lemony was sinking, slowly, dark eyes wide open as he tried to fight the current, but it kept pulling him down, and Kellar dove towards him as his eyes started sliding shut. He not-so-gently wrapped an arm around his friend's waist and kicked hard to the surface. Kellar took in a huge breath and started quickly swimming back towards the beach, slicing through the water quicker than he thought would be possible for someone dragging a 13-year-old. Lemony was horribly limp and still against his chest. He didn't think about it, and kept swimming.

Soon Kellar could stand in the water, and he waded as fast as possible, then dropped to his knees on the sandy gravel, setting Lemony down on his back. Moxie gave a little gasp and dropped down next to them, gray eyes filled with something like worry, but a little bit of terror, too.

Carefully, Kellar tilted his friend's head back, pressing 2 fingers against the side of his neck, hoping to hell and back he found a pulse. There were a few terrifying seconds where there was nothing, and then there it was. Weak and irregular, but it was there. Kellar gave a soft sigh of relief, then got closer, trying to see if his chest was moving whatsoever, to see if he was breathing.

He wasn't.

"Oh, come on, why couldn't you make this easy for me, Setnick?" He muttered to himself, and tipped Lemony's head back. Pinching his nostrils shut, Kellar pressed his lips to his, feeding a huge breath of oxygen into his lungs, making sure his chest rose as he did so. He did it again, pressing his lips to Lemony's cold, yielding mouth, so cold it scared him. The breath went in.

Nothing happened for a few long, awful seconds, but the second Kellar started to lean in to give another breath in case it hadn't worked, Lemony made a horrible, choked noise, and his eyes slid open. Kellar sighed in relief and gently helped him onto his side, rubbing his back as he gagged on the water that had been clogging his lungs.

"Hey, now. Breathe for me, Snicket. Come on." Moxie gently took his hand as he coughed, and Kellar gently brushed his dark hair away from his forehead. He gently rubbed Lemony's back, massaging circles into the spot between his shoulder blades as he propped himself up with one arm, gasping for breath in between retches. After a while his shoulders stopped hitching, and he breathed in deep. 

"I'm.." His voice was scratchy and weak, and he coughed a couple times. 

"Hey, Snicket?" Moxie said softly. He looked over at her inquisitively, and out of nowhere, she just straight up decked him, right in the face. Kellar winced and caught Setnick's shoulders as he fell back hard, dark eyes wide, evidently not registering what had just occurred. He dazedly looked up at him, clutching his nose, and blood was trickling from his nose at an alarming rate. The thick, crimson liquid was everywhere, it seemed.

"Setnick, pinch your nose and tilt your head forward. That way you won't gag on your own blood." Kellar instructed gently, keeping one arm around his shoulders. "Moxie, what the hell?" He exclaimed, and she shrugged. 

"Somebody had to." Kellar gave her a glare, and looked down at a dazed Lemony.

"Hey, Setnick, are you alright?" He inquired softly, and Snicket looked up at him, looked over at Moxie, and he shrugged. 

"I've been.. I've been better. What's the news, Moxie?" His voice was still weak and strained from the saltwater, but he gave her a weak smile. She rolled her eyes.

"You almost drowned, for the sake of Kenneth Grahame, why are you asking me?" Moxie exclaimed. There was a little bit too much of an edge to her voice, and Snicket flinched against him. 

"I had to return something," he said quietly. "Things went badly." 

"Considering I had to give you mouth-to-mouth, I'm going to go ahead and say that's an understatement, Setnick." Kellar deadpanned. It could have been the light, but he swore he saw Snicket blush, just a little bit, but he frowned.

"You dragged me out of the water and willingly resuscitated me when you could have let me drown?" He laughed, dark eyes full of something like disbelief. "Damn, Haines. Maybe I was wrong about you." Tears were welling up in his eyes, and he wiped them away, but not before Kellar could notice. 

"Hey, now. Why would I do anything else?" Kellar asked him, and Lemony's shoulders began shaking in heaving sobs, fat tears dripping down his face and mingling with the blood. 

"You could have let me drown, both of you could have, and I really don't know why you saved me." He stumbled over the words, and Kellar pulled him a little closer.

"No. Don't do that. You're our friend, ok? We saved you because we value your existence, even if you made a mistake." He ran one hand through Lemony's dark, salt-stiff hair, and Moxie scooted over and took his hand.

"Even though you really, really screwed up. Like really. We couldn't let you die. You know that," She said quietly. "And if we did, then, who's really the bad person?" 

Lemony gave her a teary grin. Kellar wrapped one of Lemony's arms around his shoulders, and carefully helped him stand up. 

"Come on. We're going home."


End file.
